| #60 |
#60-1. "Dreams"
Hold on to your dreams
for if dreams die
life is a broken winged bird
that cannot fly.
-Langston Hughes
#60-2. The man who makes no mistakes does not usually make anything.
-Bishop W C Magee
#60-3. Integrity is doing what you say. Sincerity is meaning what you say.
-Bradley Havens
_____
Maturity and growing up usually extracts the price of training ourselves to not indulge in dreaming. But all great ideas, whether product invention or business innovation, have started with someone's vision or dream.
Another thing we learn is to avoid mistakes but when taken to an extreme it becomes a big career-block called risk avoidance. Then we have to re-learn it under the name of ability to take risks. Many business leaders including Bill Gates have advised organizations to create a culture that encourages making mistakes -- not the same ones, though!
Meaning what you say requires a decision and courage, but some lack the ability to say what they mean! It is not merely a matter of having an adequate vocabulary but the constant desire to improve one's ability to communicate. People in positions of authority are able to cover up this inability by hurling phrases on their listeners such as, "Don't go by the words I use" and "Try to understand my intent, don't criticize my language!"
| #59: Three Inspirational Stories from Steve Jobs (Long) |
I had seen a number of references to this speech and some fuddy-duddies commented that Steve Jobs can very well say dropout of college but this is not a good prescription for a young person blah-blah so I did not seek out the original.
Having read it, I definitely think it is inspirational and beneath the romantic stories one can detect the super resilience of the man. Highlights are mine.
You've got to find what you love
This is the text of the Commencement address by Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computer and of Pixar Animation Studios, delivered on June 12, 2005.
| | I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. I never graduated from college. Truth be told, this is the closest I've ever gotten to a college graduation. Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That's it. No big deal. Just three stories. |
It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed college graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife. Except that when I popped out they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl. So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking: "We have an unexpected baby boy; do you want him?" They said: "Of course." My biological mother later found out that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would someday go to college.
And 17 years later I did go to college. But I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and all of my working-class parents' savings were being spent on my college tuition. After six months, I couldn't see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out. And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn't interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting.
It wasn't all romantic. I didn't have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends' rooms, I returned coke bottles for the 5¢ deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the 7 miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on. Let me give you one example:
Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn't have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and san serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can't capture, and I found it fascinating.
None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, its likely that no personal computer would have them. If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later.
Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something - your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.
My second story is about love and loss.
I was lucky I found what I loved to do early in life. Woz and I started Apple in my parents garage when I was 20. We worked hard, and in 10 years Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4000 employees. We had just released our finest creation - the Macintosh - a year earlier, and I had just turned 30. And then I got fired. How can you get fired from a company you started? Well, as Apple grew we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me, and for the first year or so things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge and eventually we had a falling out. When we did, our Board of Directors sided with him. So at 30 I was out. And very publicly out. What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating.
I really didn't know what to do for a few months. I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down - that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me. I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly. I was a very public failure, and I even thought about running away from the valley. But something slowly began to dawn on me - I still loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit. I had been rejected, but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over.
I didn't see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.
During the next five years, I started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar, and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the worlds first computer animated feature film, Toy Story, and is now the most successful animation studio in the world. In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT, I retuned to Apple, and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple's current renaissance. And Laurene and I have a wonderful family together.
I'm pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn't been fired from Apple. It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith. I'm convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You've got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don't settle.
My third story is about death.
When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: "If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right." It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "No" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.
Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.
About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning, and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn't even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor's code for prepare to die. It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you'd have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months. It means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes.
I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy, where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach and into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor. I was sedated, but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope the doctors started crying because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and I'm fine now.
This was the closest I've been to facing death, and I hope its the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept:
No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.
Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of other's opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.
When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late 1960's, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and polaroid cameras. It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: it was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and great notions.
Stewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: "Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish." It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you.
Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.
| #58: Women's Day Special |
March 8 was Women's Day. Some of my favourite quotes by women:
#58-1. Good communication is as stimulating as black coffee, and just as hard to sleep after.
-Anne Morrow Lindbergh
#58-2. Knowing what you can not do is more important than knowing what you can do.
-Lucille Ball
#58-3. Nobody really cares if you're miserable, so you might as well be happy.
-Cythina Nelms
#58-4. The next thing to being clever is being able to quote someone who is.
-Mary Pettibone Poole
#58-5. You can look at a person's attitude and know what kind of thinking is prevalent in his life... It's better to be positive and wrong than negative and right!
-Joyce Meyer
#58-6. Nothing in life is to be feared. It is only to be understood.
-Marie Curie
#58-7. We spend the first twelve months of our children's lives teaching them to walk and talk and the next twelve telling them to sit down and shut up.
-Phyllis Diller
_____
The 3rd, 5th and 6th are profound. We can apply the last one at the organization, too. We send our juniors to assertiveness training and creativity workshops, but by the time they are seniors, how come they learn not to speak up or think innovatively? The price of maturity? Could I retain an external image of maturity and still be enthusiastic and unconventional? Russell has some good advice on this that has been helpful for me.
| #57: The Essence of Trust |
A little girl and her father were crossing a bridge. The father was kind of scared so he asked his little daughter, "Sweetheart, please hold my hand so that you don't fall into the river." The little girl said, "No, Dad. You hold my hand."
"What's the difference?" asked the puzzled father.
"There's a big difference," replied the little girl. "If I hold your hand and something happens to me, chances are that I may let your hand go. But if you hold my hand, I know for sure that no matter what happens, you will never let my hand go."
In any relationship, the essence of trust is not in its bind, but in its bond.
_____
While the story itself is good, its concept may be applicable to other areas. Some managers say, "I have clearly told my team that I am available for any help. If they need help they will ask. If they don't ask, it's their fault." Another manager might periodically sit with members of the team, actively identifying areas where help could be provided and thus show the willingness as well as the ability to help. When they see this a few times, it makes all members of the team feel safe to seek help.
| #56 |
Slightly different tone of thought provokers today... Like many others, a second or third reading later might reveal multiple interpretations.
#56-1. I'm made of rubber, you're made of glue,
everything you say bounces off me and sticks to you.
-Anon
#56-2. You must get good at one of two things - planting in the spring or begging in the fall.
-Jim Rohn
#56-3. Ninety percent of everything is crap.
-Theodore Sturgeon
_____
The first quote sounds like the prattle of a primary school kid but it can be employed as a way to deal with what we hear. It can also be seen as a truth about what we say to others, whether positive or negative.
The third sounds like a wisecrack but it again is a useful thing to remember especially in today's hyper-competitive environment when everyone is trying to cope with new concepts, gadgets, information...
| #55: How Satisfied Are Your Customers? |
A little boy went into a drug store, reached for a soda carton and pulled it over to the telephone. He climbed onto the carton so that he could reach the buttons on the phone, and proceeded to punch in seven digits. The store owner observed and listened to the conversation:
The boy asked, "Lady, can you give me the job of cutting your lawn? The woman replied, "I already have someone to cut my lawn."
"Lady, I will cut your lawn for half the price of the person who cuts your lawn now," replied the boy. The woman responded that she was very satisfied with the person who was presently cutting her lawn.
The little boy found more perseverance and offered, "Lady, I'll even sweep your curb and your sidewalk, so on Sunday you will have the prettiest lawn in all of North Palm beach, Florida."
Again the woman answered in the negative. With a smile on his face, the little boy replaced the receiver.
The store owner, who was listening to all this, walked over to the boy and said, "Son, I like your attitude. I like your positive spirit and would like to offer you a job."
The little boy replied, "No, thanks, I was just checking my performance on the job I already have. I'm the one who is working for that lady I was talking to!"
____
Other than the message on verifying customer satisfaction, this story teaches us:
-Lateral thinking on the boy's part -- he inverted the concept of holding on to a customer by actually trying to tempt her to change, but with low risk as there was no real danger
-Curiosity and helpful nature of the shopkeeper helped him learn a great lesson from a small boy
-Clarity of the lady in valuing her trusted service provider rather than shopping around for a cheaper option
| #54 |
#54-1. Often, fear is a payment made on a bill that never came due.
-Anon
#54-2. My dad always used to say, "If you are falling off a cliff, you may as well try to fly. You have nothing to lose."
-Captain John Sheridan
#54-3. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. The fearful are caught as often as the bold.
-Helen Keller
_____
I think each of us is bold and courageous in some things and hesitant when it comes to some other things. The trick is to know which things should belong in which category.
Anticipating potential problems and taking steps to prevent them is useful, persistent anxiety about the future is not.
Risk assessment is useful, risk avoidance is not.
Weighing of facts, data and available options is useful, "analysis paralysis" out of vague fear is not.
Dwelling on actions one can take is useful, brooding on things beyond one's control is not.
| #53 |
#53-1. The only thing I like about the stones that come in my way is once I pass over them, they automatically become my milestones.
-Anon
#53-2. The barriers are not erected which can say to aspiring talents and industry, "Thus far and no farther."
-Ludwig van Beethoven
#53-3. I knew from feelings that I had to do something. And I did it. And I did it well. I did what made me feel better tomorrow even though it was very, very painful at the time. The result was beneficial. Do those things today that feel good tomorrow.
-Thomas D. Willhite
_____
I have noticed that most people seem happy when talking of adverse situations from the past, rarely when they talk of comfortable, happy situations. Tough problems, once we solve them, seem to become permanent sources of energy for us. Shouldn't we eagerly seek out more such situations?
If a barrier between us and a desired goal seems too strong and frustrating, maybe our aspiration is not strong enough? Maybe we are not ready to reach that destination yet and should find an intermediate goal.
The third is profound. Feel good (at a higher level of self awareness) in knowing that you will feel good tomorrow though it is not feeling good (at a literal level) doing something now. If only we could practice this daily…
| #52: Anand Mahindra Inspires Indian IT |
The following speech by Anand Mahindra at the Nasscom Leadership Summit on February 13, 2008 is worth reading for the following:
-A good speech with interesting analogies, down-to-earth tone but unmistakable points
-Many quotable quotes
-Good advice for the Indian IT industry
-Pride for all i-flexers on having achieved some of the suggested dreams, albeit mixed with a little disappointment that i-flex is not mentioned as an example
IT industry has its own Hiranyakashyap to battle
14 Feb, 2008, 1830 hrs IST
More articles from Nasscom Summit at http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/msid-2782893,prtpage-1.cms
Nasscom Leadership Summit has always been a place for good story-telling and provocative thoughts. This year, the spark came not from a software veteran or a BPO moghul, but a captain of an old economy industry. Anand Mahindra, vice chairman and managing director of Mahindra & Mahindra drew from mythology to call for game-changing innovation from the IT industry.
One of the tasks we at the Mahindra Group have set ourselves is to aspire to be recognized as the most customer-centric organization in India, and why not, in the world!
In order to walk the talk, every time I'm asked to speak at a conference, I have made it a default option to ask what the audience--my customers--might expect of me.
And so I found myself wondering what this conclave of IT wizards expects from a predominantly right-brained character like myself. You certainly haven't called me here to deliver a sermon on technology. And I wouldn't even risk doing that with Nandan (Nilekani) and Kiran (Karnik) sharing the dais!
Of course, I might have been able to do that by getting one of my IT colleagues to write this speech, but then it would have been comprehensible to you, but incomprehensible to me!
And although the title of this session is 'Building a Knowledge Economy for Growth', I believe that a) All of you out there have helped build the foundations of a knowledge economy, so again, you don't need me to pontificate to you about that and b) I think there are some urgent pressures and imperatives the industry has to deal with at this point.
So, I'm going to talk about something completely different: I will talk about the Trimurti.
Most of the Indians in this audience will know the Trimurti – the trinity in Indian mythology of Brahma the creator, Vishnu the sustainer and Shiva the destroyer. There is a wonderful depiction of this in stone, just ten kilometers across the bay, at Elephanta. Both as a businessman, and as someone who tends to see life in visual images, the Trimurti reminds me of India's IT industry. Think of it.
You people have gone through a stage, where like Brahma, you created something out of nothing. You created a new and global industry. You created a service sector that is today, a major pillar of our GDP. But most importantly, you created a perception of a new India, both in the world and in Indian hearts and minds.
CK Prahalad once told me that in universities in America today, there are almost unfairly high expectations from Indian students, because there is a huge perception that all Indian students are brilliant, outstanding. You created that perception. And within India, what you created was self-belief. You showed us what Indians could do, and now the rest of India believes that Indians can do anything. Brahma created a physical landscape; you sowed the seeds of a new mental and psychological landscape. In that sense, you are truly the Brahmas of the age of liberalisation.
But creation is only the first phase. You then have to move on to the next phase of sustaining that creation - to the realm of Vishnu the preserver. Creation is a one-time affair. Sustaining that creation is obviously a longer haul, subject to many attacks and crises. Perhaps that is why Vishnu comes not in one, but in ten incarnations.
Every time there is a new danger, he changes his avatar to a form best suited to meet that danger. At various times he has come as a fish, as a tortoise, as a dwarf. But his most interesting avatar came when he had to fight the demon Hiranyakashyap. Hiranyakashyap was a bad guy, who had obtained an amazing boon from the gods. Neither man nor beast could kill him; he could not be killed by daylight or at nighttime, within his home or outside it, on the ground or in the sky. All this made him pretty invincible – he went on a rampage, and only Vishnu could tackle him.
The IT industry today faces challenges every bit as complex as those Hiranyakashyap posed for Vishnu. It is hit by a macroeconomic tsunami of adverse currency changes, rapidly escalating costs in both salaries and infrastructure and inadequate talent pools below the tier 1 and 2 institutions.
At the Company level, firms are begin to feel the penalties of poor differentiation and lack of focus (trying to be all things to all people); and an over-emphasis on high volumes and price competition.
Suddenly, the industry seems to have fallen off its pedestal; You are facing your very own Hiranyakashyap.
It's interesting to see how Vishnu dealt with him. How do you destroy someone who can't be killed by man or beast, inside or outside, by day or night etc etc. The demon pretty much had all bases covered. So Vishnu took on the Narasimha avatar to bypass the boon. Narasimha was a hybrid creature, half man half lion, and therefore neither man nor beast.
He killed Hiranyakashyap at twilight, which is neither day nor night. He killed him in the courtyard, which is neither inside a house nor outside it. And he killed the demon by placing him across his knee and tearing him apart, thus circumventing the terms of the boon that he could not be killed either on the ground or in the sky. Now that's what I call an innovative algorithm!
So what are the lessons for the IT industry in this story? Well, the first thing Vishnu did was to reinvent himself. It was not the gentle and contemplative Vishnu who fought Hiranyakashyap – it was the fearsome Narasimha avatar. Vishnu reinvented himself to suit the circumstances. The circumstances have changed drastically. Reinvent yourselves.
Do I have all the answers on the modes of re-invention? No, obviously not, otherwise I'd be out there filing patents, although I can suggest two broad approaches.
First, why don't we design business models that challenge traditional industry approaches and then transform our organizations, people and processes to execute. If we simply keep knocking on the doors of clients with our traditional offshoring options, we'll meet the fate of hearing aid salespersons: our best customers won't hear the doorbell!
For example, software-on-demand and open source models changed the rules of the software game. Can we not try to change the rules of the game this time around? Why didn't we invent Zoom technology or Virtualisation? Thus far, India's brand of innovation has been identified with the IT industry, but is it truly innovative, is it really game changing? Ironically, you can now look to the old smokestack industries for inspiration.
A few weeks ago, an Indian car company made a game-changing move. Maybe the Nano will ultimately not retail for a hundred thousand rupees. Maybe it won't have great margins, or replace as many motorcycles as it would like to, but it was a game changing move; it fired a shot that was heard around the world. Can the IT world make any such claim?
There was an old saying, apparently adopted by the IT industry, that the secret of success is to jump every time opportunity knocks. And how do you know when opportunity knocks? You don't, you just keep jumping!
So when are we going to stop simply jumping every time a client seems to sneeze, and actually create products and IP that become their own opportunities?
Let's look at new areas where India may have natural advantage. I remember C.K Prahlad telling us that we didn't realize how important it was to leverage emerging innovation ecosystems in our country. He gave us the example of how, due to a fortunate coincidence, India's IT and automotive industries were situated in roughly the same geographic clusters. So why wasn't, according to Michael Porter's competitive theories, a world beating automotive telematics industry taking shape here.
Why aren't IT companies using the massive potential of India's soft power, the film and TV business to exploit technological dominance of what Telco's call the 'last mile' but is actually the 'first mile' in the brave new interactive world?
Secondly, why don't we try to focus on a vertical industry (e.g., telecom) or horizontal domain (e.g., supply chain management) selecting the key dimensions of competitive differentiation – product vs. service, breadth vs. depth, speed of delivery, customer service responsiveness, fixed or outcome-based pricing, proprietary technology or intellectual property, and so on.
And let's be prepared to make hard decisions along the way – change people who don't fit, walk away from businesses that doesn't fit.
It's essential, while attempting this, however, to recognize that focus, differentiation and brand building require time and investment. Selling value or doing business differently than the norm tends to elongate sales cycles, which tends to put pressure on cash flow and we need to resist the temptation to broaden our offerings or slash prices just to win the business and keep people busy.
Along with re-invention, during the course of reinventing himself, Vishnu figured out the loopholes in the boon, and regrouped his physical and mental aspects to take advantage of these loopholes. That's something the IT industry can do as well. Its often been pointed out that in the Chinese word for crisis is also the Chinese word for opportunity. I love that mindset. I truly believe that the adverse rate of the dollar can be viewed as the glass half empty or the glass half full. Sure it affects margins. But it's also a chance to take advantage of the loophole and buy yourselves what you don't have, so that you can regroup your structure to meet the challenge.
To me the fact that our currency is more valuable and our price earnings ratios are still higher than average, means that we can acquire the front-ends and the large IT businesses that we never thought we could before. And the bigger the better. If people are egging us on to leapfrog, then they should also cheer as you bid for companies that seem bigger fish than you. It's happening all the time today in the manufacturing sector—Tata Corus being the stellar example—and we at Mahindra, while starting from scratch, have inorganically compiled together a portfolio of acquisitions that make us the fourth largest steel forging company in the world today.
This is not without historical precedent. If you look at Japan and South Korea, both of them went through a phase of enduring the worlds' skepticism, then painstakingly building strong and competent domestic businesses, and then on the back of global liquidity support and strong price earnings ratios, compressing time by acquiring global firms and their customer credibility.
In effect, by acquiring the strengths and skill sets you need, you will regroup your profile and create a new entity, which can vanquish your challenges as effectively as Vishnu vanquished Hiranyakashyap.
And finally, while reinventing yourselves, you will have to bring in some of the aspects of the third element of the Trimurti – that of Shiva the destroyer.
Destroy for example the premise that cost arbitrage is the way to go. Recognize that the low cost, high volume offshore outsourcing battle has already been fought and won. Often, when strategic frames grow rigid, companies, like countries, tend to keep fighting the LAST war. If you are not already on the winners list, you need to think of other ways to compete on value and differentiation, rather than price and scale.
Destroy the premise that success comes only from size, and desist from comparisons with other Indian companies. There are still many IT companies in India who define success as "we want to be one of the top ten Indian IT companies". Why not, for example, "we want to be the world's #1 banking back office solutions provider"?
And lastly, perhaps the time has come to destroy the notion that the world may be your oyster but India is not. There is a huge domestic market in middle class and corporate India that has not been plumbed. Even selling to the bottom of the pyramid is profitable today. But it needs a creative destruction of the current mindset and a re-think on many of the assumptions we hold dear.
So, in conclusion, perhaps there really isn't that much distance between avatars in the mythological sense and avatars in the technology sense. Perhaps they are both symbolic expressions of the same reality. In their different ways, they both underline the same message – that it is necessary in any situation to reinvent, regroup and re-think our way out of whatever challenges confront us.
I'd like to close with one of my favourite quotes—such a favourite, that I can't even remember where I first read it:
My father thought the world would be same;
My children, however, wake up EVERY day thinking the world will be different.
Let's begin emulating our children. Time to wake up and make the world different.
| #51 |
#51-1. We judge ourselves by what we feel capable of doing, while others judge us by what we have already done.
-Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
#51-2. If you don't learn from your mistakes, there's no sense making them.
-Anon
#51-3. Comfort -- comes as guest, lingers to become host and stays to enslave us.
-Swami Chinmayananda
_____
The first one is especially evident during performance appraisal.
Sometimes people say, "I am human, I make mistakes." The problem is if one uses it as an acceptable response and fails to derive some lesson from the experience.
Most of the time we are striving to earn and enjoy comfort but progress and growth always lie beyond the comfort zone. Maybe we should be like the train, speeding across plains and over bridges, resting and recuperating periodically at stations. A train should not permanently be at the station.
| #50 |
#50-1. All problems become smaller if you don't dodge them, but confront them. Touch a thistle timidly, and it pricks you; grasp it boldly, and its spines crumble.
-William F. Halsey
#50-2. People will only change when the combination of the desire for change, the vision of the change, and the knowledge of the change process is greater than the value of leaving things as they are. This can alternatively be expressed as:
Dissatisfaction + Vision + Change Process = Cost of Change.
-Beckhard and Harris, Managing Complex Change
#50-3. A proud man is always looking down on things and people; and, of course, as long as you're looking down, you can't see something that's above you.
-C. S. Lewis
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The first has been a recurring theme here in i-TFTD. My favourite take on it is: most industries today call themselves providers of solutions. Solutions are needed only when problems exist. So all of us "solution providers" must be eagerly seeking out problems. Instead we avoid, deny, hide and spend energy finding who to blame. Funny. Most of the highly effective and successful people I have observed, have a curiousity to move towards newer problems to tackle.
The second quote is a bit abstract, from an academic source. It applies not only in an organizational context but also in personal life. We say we wish to change something but do not actually do things to change it. To avoid the prolonged dissatisfaction it is better to be aware that there are costs that we are not willing to pay for achieving the changed situation. Maybe it is a prudent decision. Maybe not.
The third reminds us to set a higher vision for ourselves rather than basking for too long in any past achievement.
| #49: Responding vs. Reacting |
Responding vs. Reacting
From the Winning Without Intimidation newsletter by Bob Burg at www.burg.com
People ask, "Isn't Responding and Reacting the same thing?" Actually, though the words are similar, the difference is significant. I love what Zig Ziglar asks when speaking about this concept: "Did you respond well to the medication your doctor prescribed, or did you have a bad reaction?"
Here's a winner's look at the difference between those two concepts. Recently I was pulling into a parking space. Being too hurried, and not paying attention as I should have, I didn't notice that the car parked in the next space had a man coming out of it. I braked in plenty of time, but it gave the man a start. He looked at me with that look that said, "You (insert nasty name here)!"
He reacted. Who could blame him? Now I had a choice; would I react to his reaction?... or would I respond, thereby diffusing an otherwise uncomfortable (and potentially nasty) situation, and hopefully turning a potential enemy into a friend? I chose to respond. I immediately raised my hand with a sincere smile and mouthed, "Sorry, my fault."
He then responded with a smile and a wave of his own. Funny thing is, when I got out of my car, his words to me were actually, "Sorry, I should have looked before getting out of my car." Can you believe that?! I see two results to that situation; One is that a potential (and too typical) argument turned into a friendly exchange.
Secondly, next time he is in a similar situation, there's a good chance he will respond instead of react, turn a potential enemy into a friend, and begin his own chain reaction of kindness and friendship.
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Though I find the example a bit simplistic, the concept of responding as an active and conscious behaviour as opposed to reacting as a passive and unthinking behaviour, is useful. Sometimes people talk to us about their problems, expecting us to just listen. Responding in this case would be to be a good listener as opposed to reacting with solutions or advice. When someone sends a nasty mail on a genuine issue, one could either react to the tone or respond by acknowledging the issue. The latter moves the issue forward towards resolution while the former creates a new issue.
| #48: Two Lives and Resistance |
Your Unlived Life
Every day we wake up, and, whether we know or appreciate it, we wage an invisible war against an unquenchable foe. This unseen enemy stands between the life we live and the unlived life within us. Fall victim to it as most do and mediocrity is your course. Overcome it and your glory will be the success and accomplishment that can only come with living your Unlived Life.
by Steven Pressfield (This is an excerpt of the article at http://www.nightingaleconant.com/ae_article.aspx?a=achievingyourunlivedlife&i=180&page=3)
DEFINING THE ENEMY
Most of us have two lives. The life we live, and the unlived life within us. Between the two stands Resistance. Have you ever brought home a treadmill and let it gather dust in the attic? Ever resolved on a diet, a course of yoga, and then quit on it? Are you a writer who doesn't write, a painter who doesn't paint, an entrepreneur who never starts a venture? Then you know what Resistance is.
Resistance is the most toxic force on the planet. It is the root of more unhappiness than poverty, disease, and dysfunction. Resistance is faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, harder to kick than crack cocaine. We're not alone if we've been mown down by Resistance; millions of good men and women have bitten the dust before us. And here's the biggest problem: We don't even know what hit us. I never did. From age 24 to 32, Resistance kicked my ass from East Coast to West and back again 13 times, and I never even knew it existed. I looked everywhere for the enemy and failed to see it right in front of my face.
Look into your own heart. Even though you've only read a few paragraphs into this article, unless I'm crazy, right now a still, small voice is piping up, telling you as it has 10 thousand times, the calling that is yours and yours alone. You know it. No one has to tell you. And unless I'm crazy, you're no closer to taking action on it than you were yesterday or will be tomorrow. You think Resistance isn't real? Resistance will bury you!
You know, Hitler wanted to be an artist. At 18 he took his inheritance, 700 kronen, and moved to Vienna to live and study. He applied to the Academy of Fine Arts and later to the School of Architecture. Ever see one of his paintings? Neither have I. Resistance beat him. Call it overstatement, but I'll say it anyway: It was easier for Hitler to start World War II than it was for him to face a blank square of canvas.
RESISTANCE IS INVISIBLE
Resistance cannot be seen, touched, heard, or smelled. But it can be felt. It is experienced as a force field emanating from a work-in-potential. It's a repelling force. It's negative. Its intention is to shove the creator away, distract him, sap his energy, incapacitate him.
If Resistance wins, the venture doesn't get started.
RESISTANCE IS INTERNAL
Resistance seems to come from outside ourselves. We locate it in spouses, jobs, bosses, kids, distractions. "Peripheral opponents," as Pat Riley used to say when he coached the Los Angeles Lakers. Resistance is not a peripheral opponent. Resistance arises from within. It is self-generated and self-perpetuated. Resistance is the enemy within.
_____
At some point in our maturity about life and the universe, we have to strike the right balance between aspiring for further progress and accepting our own limitations. Of course these limits can be transcended but only through our own actions. Small steps forward are much better than grand visions or vague yearnings.
| #47 |
#47-1. People in any organization will tend to treat new concepts and ideas as follows: 5% will accept immediately, 25% will lean towards acceptance, 60% will wait and see if it seems okay, 10% will never accept anything.
-Anon
#47-2. What gets measured gets done; what gets recognized gets done even better.
-Anon
#47-3. There are two types of people who can tell you the truth about yourself: an enemy who has lost his temper and a friend who loves you dearly.
-Anon
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The 5% early adopters tend to get ignored but they along with the 25% "almost-adopters" must be nurtured as evangelizers, who can help in converting the cautious 60%. The 10% nay-sayers tend to get too much attention, they must be largely ignored, only their impact has to be contained.
More and more research is proving that managers and parents are being too stingy with praise and recognition.
I like the learning value implied in the third quote. We could train ourselves to glimpse the truth brought out by an angry enemy.
| #46 |
#46-1. The only difference between where you are right now and where you'll be five years from now are the people you meet and the books you read.
-Charlie Jones
#46-2. Don't put the key to your happiness in someone else's pocket.
-Swami Chinmayananda
#46-3. Make mistakes faster than the competition, so you have more chances to learn and win.
-John W. Holt Jr.
_____
Some say they have no time to read, or that books cannot teach; some are too busy to consciously try and meet new people. Not doing both of these makes us miss so many opportunities to learn interesting and useful aspects about life. And obviously impacts our career.
The second is something we need to remind ourselves constantly. We often blame external entities or circumstances for our career, our mood, our happiness. Maybe because it is easy and lessens our guilt.
Dynamic people and organizations try many things boldly, knowing that some would fail but at least some would succeed. They progress faster than those who ponder and analyze too much in trying to avoid failure.
| #45: The New Gabbar Singh? |
When we were young kids growing up in America, we were told to eat our vegetables at dinner and not to leave them. Mothers said, "Think of the starving children in India and finish the dinner."
And now I tell my children: "Finish your maths homework. Think of the children in India who would make you starve, if you don't."
-Thomas Friedman in "The World Is Flat"
_____
Gabbar Singh is the iconic dacoit villain of the blockbuster Bollywood movie, "Sholay". His dialogues in the movie were memorized by everyone. One of them had to do with what mothers in nearby villages told their kids in order to make them finish dinner and go to bed, "… nahin to Gabbar Singh aa jaayega!"
| #44: Avoid the 99 Club |
Once upon a time, there lived a King who, despite his luxurious lifestyle, was neither happy nor content. One day, the King came upon a servant who was singing happily while he worked.
This fascinated the King; why was he, the Supreme Ruler of the Land, unhappy and gloomy, while a lowly servant had so much. The King asked the servant, "Why are you so happy?"
The man replied, "Your Majesty, I am nothing but a servant, but my family and I don't need too much -- just a roof over our heads and warm food to fill our tummies."
The king was not satisfied with that reply. Later in the day, he sought the advice of his most trusted advisor. After hearing the King's woes and the servant's story, the advisor said, "Your Majesty, I believe that the servant has not been made part of The 99 Club."
"The 99 Club? And what exactly is that?" the King inquired. The advisor replied, "Your Majesty, to truly know what The 99 Club is, place 99 gold coins in a bag and leave it at this servant's doorstep." When the servant saw the bag, he took it into his house. When he opened the bag, he let out a great shout of joy... so many gold coins!
He began to count them. After several counts, he was at last convinced that there were 99 coins. He wondered, "What could've happened to that last gold coin? Surely, no one would leave 99 coins!" He looked everywhere he could, but that final coin was elusive. Finally, exhausted, he decided that he was going to have to work harder than ever to earn that gold coin and complete his collection.
From that day, the servant's life was changed. He was overworked, horribly grumpy, and castigated his family for not helping him make that 100th gold coin. He stopped singing while he worked. Witnessing this drastic transformation, the King was puzzled. When he sought his advisor's help, the advisor said, "Your Majesty, the servant has now officially joined The 99 Club."
He continued, "The 99 Club is a name given to those people who have enough to be happy but are never contented, because they're always yearning and striving for that extra 1 telling to themselves: "Let me get that one final thing and then I will be happy for life." We can be happy, even with very little in our lives, but the minute we're given something bigger and better, we want even more! We lose our sleep, our happiness, we hurt the people around us; all these as a price for our growing needs and desires."
That's what joining "The 99 Club" is all about!
____
The idea is not to stop aspiring or working to achieve something but the way we proceed towards it. I decide to go on a long drive to Lonavla, a hill station near Mumbai accessible through a comfortable expressway, but throughout the way if I complain about the traffic, worry about the rising prices and generally feel miserable, the original higher objective -- enjoying time out in scenic surroundings -- is lost.
| #43: Put a Shark in Your Tank |
*** Fresh Fish Challenge: Put a Shark in Your Tank ***
-Author unknown
The Japanese have always loved fresh fish. But the waters close to Japan have not held many fish for decades. So to feed the Japanese population, fishing boats got bigger and went farther than ever. The farther the fishermen went, the longer it took to bring in the fish. If the return trip took more than a few days, the fish were not fresh. The Japanese did not like the taste.
To solve this problem, fishing companies installed freezers on their boats. They would catch the fish and freeze them at sea. Freezers allowed the boats to go farther and stay longer. however, the Japanese could taste the difference between fresh and frozen and they did not like frozen fish. The frozen fish brought a lower rice. So fishing companies installed fish tanks. They would catch the fish and stuff them in the tanks, fin to fin. After a little hashing around, the fish stopped moving. They were tired and dull, but alive.
Unfortunately, the Japanese could still taste the difference. Because the fish did not move for days, they lost their fresh-fish taste. The Japanese preferred the lively taste of fresh fish, not sluggish fish. So how did Japanese fishing companies solve this problem? How do they get fresh-tasting fish to Japan? To keep the fish tasting fresh, the Japanese fishing companies still put the fish in the tanks. But now they add a small shark to each tank. The shark eats a few fish, but most of the fish arrive in a very lively state. The fish are challenged.
As soon as you reach your goals, such as finding a wonderful mate, starting a successful company, paying off your debts or whatever, you might lose your passion. You don't need to work so hard so you relax. Like the Japanese fish problem, the best solution is simple. It was observed by L. Ron Hubbard in the early 1950's: "Man thrives, oddly enough, only in the presence of a challenging environment."
*** The Benefits of a Challenge ***
The more intelligent, persistent and competent you are, the more you enjoy a good problem. If your challenges are the correct size, and if you are steadily conquering those challenges, you are happy. You think of your challenges and get energized. You are excited to try new solutions. You have fun. You are alive!
*** Recommendations ***
-Instead of avoiding challenges, jump into them. Beat the heck out of them.
-Enjoy the game.
-If your challenges are too large or too numerous, do not give up. Failing makes you tired. Instead, reorganize. Find more determination, more knowledge, more help.
-Don't create success and lie in it. You have resources, skills and abilities to make a difference.
-Put a shark in your tank and see how far you can really go!
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Some of us vegetarians might not identify with this fish-y story but the lesson is valid. The "flow" state of optimal performance is also achieved only when people are engaged in slightly difficult goals and not when something is beyond their perceived ability nor when something is too easy.
| #42 |
#42-1. Developing excellent communication skills is absolutely essential to effective leadership. The leader must be able to share knowledge and ideas to transmit a sense of urgency and enthusiasm to others. If a leader can't get a message across clearly and motivate others to act on it, then having a message doesn't even matter.
-Gilbert Amelio
#42-2. The key that unlocks energy is desire. It's also the key to a long and interesting life. If we expect to create any drive, any real force within ourselves, we have to get excited.
-Earl Nightingale
#42-3. The sign of intelligent people is their ability to control emotions by the application of reason.
-Marya Mannes
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In my view, the ancient debate about form versus substance has now settled somewhere in between -- both are important.
The second and third could appear to be contradictory to some. They are not. Desire, excitement, passion are pre-requisites for excellence. Intelligent people would channelize these "good" emotions for good purposes.
| #41 |
#41-1. If things are not going well with you, begin your effort at correcting the situation by carefully examining the service you are rendering, and especially the spirit in which you are rendering it.
-Roger Babson
#41-2. In the confrontation between the stream and the rock, the stream always wins -- not through strength but by perseverance.
-H. Jackson Brown
#41-3. The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.
-Alvin Toffler
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The concept of "servant leadership" has been gaining prominence with books and blogs dedicated to the subject. I believe Mahatma Gandhi proved that a different kind of leadership is possible and effective. Service orientation can be applied at many levels usefully.
Persistence, perseverance, stubbornness (in a positive sense)... key qualities that most of us can work to acquire and benefit from.
The last quote from Toffler, one of the few truly prophetic futurists, is profound. His books are difficult to read but have time and again predicted future trends in business and society. Learnability is the ultimate skill today, that usually tends to reduce with experience.
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